On the 3rd and 4th of September 2022, thousands of people gathered at the Elkah Cricket Stadium for the Soweto Kota Festival.In its 5th year, the Kota Festival brings together people from different communities to celebrate and support kota makers from all over the province as they showcase their culinary skills.The festival has truly elevated the status of the kota, which is quarter loaf of bread hollowed out and filled with different ingredients.
The Kota Festival was started to assist kota businesses in Gauteng townships to grow.“When we started, we started out with a few kota businesses who were owned by young people.The kota business owners are now exposed to people from around the Gauteng province, and as a result, there was growth in their businesses due to an increase in demand for their kotas.” said Event Organiser, Sidwell Tshingilane.
Over the years, the festival also assisted the kota businesses with marketing.Tshingilane highlighted that the festival was an important platform to not only grow kota businesses, but also the township economy at large.This years festival was definitely bigger and better if one considers the smiles on peoples faces, the sponsorships and vendors.
The two day event was supported by Castle Lager,Blue Ribbon,ESKORT,TymeBank,Clover,Aromat and many more.For 125 years, Castle Lager has not only stood as a vanguard of resilience and unity, bringing the nation together around our nation’s favourite pastime, sport and braais; but has also been a paragon of a brand that celebrates South African heritage and culture.
“Since existence,Castle Lager has always celebrated South African heritage and culture.And I think there is no better way of showing that, than celebrating South African flavours and the food that people enjoy,” said Brand Manager at Castle Lager,Kirsten Golding.She also highlighted that it was important for Castle Lager to celebrate small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Heritage month in South Africa recognises aspects of South African culture which are both tangible and intangible: creative expression such as music and performances, our historical inheritance, language, the food we eat.
Kota’s can be classified as street food sold in townships.They are quick, inexpensive, mobile, and filling. For many years,Kota’s have been considered as township culture. Mfundo Gasa one of the vedor’s at the Soweto Kota Festival said, “The nostalgia of eating Kota’s comes from our background.Growing up, we didn’t cook on Friday’s because we knew that we would buy Kota’s”.
Since inception, the Kota festival has empowered many Kota businesses owners enabling them to have more branches across Johannesburg.”The number of kota businesses that have stalls at the festival increases by 10% annually, and we are also seeing an increase in kota businesses in townships because of the number of jobs lost during the Covid-19 lockdown,” explained Tshingilane.
